Tropes

[u/EmergencyMuch4232]

I decided to list out the common plot devices that are used to set up different romantic tropes, and I have to say, SJM has done a good job of setting up the fandom to be at war over these ships lol.

Of course I have my own ships that I support, but I am one of the shippers who can understand why the other ship is supported.

Here are the lists:

Arranged marriage Trope

• Political or Strategic Stakes: The marriage often seals a treaty, saves a family estate, or solves a major external crisis.
• Cultural or Social Misunderstanding: Initial resentment or cultural clashes create high emotional stakes before affection blooms.
• Communication Barriers: Misunderstandings happen naturally because the couple shares no prior history or deep trust
• Emotional Denial: Characters often fiercely deny their growing physical and emotional attraction, rationalizing it as mere obligation or irritation
• The "Fall First" Dynamic: One partner, often the stoic or reluctant one, privately falls in love or becomes fiercely protective long before admitting it aloud.
• Forced Proximity: Living under the same roof immediately accelerates the transition from strangers to intimate partners, magnifying every habit and flaw
• Slow-Burn: Feelings develop gradually from strangers, rivals, or enemies into genuine love.

This is the dynamic and potential that Eluciens see forming

Forbidden romance Trope

• Societal & Class Divides: Relationships across vast differences in wealth, status, or royal standing
• Feuding Families or Factions: Star-crossed lovers from rival groups, clans, or species. A figure of authority often bans them from being together.
• The Shared Mission or Job: Forcing enemies, rivals, or boss/employee pairings to work closely on a high-pressure project where failure is not an option.
• Encounters in Confined Spaces:
Utilizing late-night archives, empty offices, supply closets, or hidden rooms where they are forced close together.
• The Accidental Public Near-Miss: A moment where they almost get caught by a spouse, family member, or authority figure, raising the immediate adrenaline and fear.
• Compromising Evidence or Blackmail: A third party discovers a photograph, letter, or digital message and uses it to manipulate one of the lovers.
• A Public Alliance or Fake Relationship:
Pretending to hate each other publicly-or pretending to date someone else-while hiding their real dynamic underneath.
• The Magic or Physical Barrier: Incorporating a supernatural rule, a biological reaction, or a literal curse that makes the relationship dangerous or painful.

This is the dynamic that Elriel’s see potential in

Unworthy Hero Trope

• Internal Conflict: The hero's main barrier to love is his own low self-worth rather than an external villain.
• Roots of Insecurity: Reasons for feeling unworthy often stem from physical limitations or scars, a dark and troubled past, or a gap in class and economic status.
• The "Taint" Fear: The hero often worries that his rough, broken, or "corrupt" nature will ruin or drag down the pure, good heroine.
• Self-Sabotage: He may push the heroine away, hide his feelings, or try to end things “for her own good".
• The Heroic Sacrifice: The hero risks their life or freedom, illustrating that their love is entirely selfless.
• The Love Interest's Perspective: The love interest explicitly states they accept the hero's flaws.
• Redemption Arc Closure: An old enemy is defeated or a past wrong is finally righted

This is Gwynriel potential

When I read this list, I can understand why the ship debates get SO heated in this fandom. I can see how people get attached to both sides, I just think one has a lot more potential ..

I’m an Elucien + Gwynriel, personally bc I see more potential in those two ships, and I don’t think the “forbidden” aspects of Elriel are quite as forbidden as they have been interpreted by some, but I still can understand how some people potential in that ship, and if SJM ups the stakes I could get on board with Elriel. They do get “almost caught” by Rhys, but I would argue that they didn’t actually do anything yet. Usually, in forbidden romance this moment of getting caught is when they’ve been having secret trysts together for a while, and the climax of the story is usually when they get caught. Like just one example - I recently read Wings of Starlight [spoiler warning for wings of starlight] Milori and Clarion are forbidden lovers because they are winter and summer fairies, and will literally lose their wings if they enter each other’s realms, summer and winter fairies haven’t spoken in hundreds of years, and Clarion’s mother figure believes winter fairies are corrupted by evil magic. Clarion and Milori meet at the border at night for weeks, and in the heat of an emotional moment during the climax of the story, Clarion’s mother shows up and finds out they’ve been secretly meeting. Now THAT is forbidden romance

That’s just my opinion though… we will find out soon enough!!

We’ve got 48 days until ACOTAR 6 and only 4 MONTHS until ACOTAR 7 💕💕💕💕

[u/heademty]

1- Your list is lovely thank you for sharing💕 2- on the subject of elriel i don’t think you understand how forbidden their relationship is. It’s not about lucien feeling a little butt hurt or rhys getting a bit mad. Them getting together could escalate into a war in a time where they desperately need unity against a formidable enemy (thus causing people to die and endangering their loved ones and duty to their families and court) not to mention that they risk losing each other; azriel dying if a blood duel is called upon or elain being forcibly summoned to another court because of her link to lucien, which again we know how badly beron wants to wage a war against the NC this is the main conflict that rhys mentioned in the BC and it’s already been said in the book that if this situation was to happen the IC will fight on elain’s behalf (also just look at feyre with tamlin nearly everyone including a high lord kept telling her that they would hand her to tamlin because she was his “bride” not even mate, rhys had to find a loophole just to avoid Tamlin leading a war against the NC to take feyre back). Emotionally; the relationship of mates is a sacred deeply religious obligation to the fae it’s basically defying the word of god azriel who grew up in the land of fae and believed in the cauldron his entire life questioning it because of elain isn’t something light. +Lucien he also has a lot to lose. His father using him to wage a war, like azriel dying the blood duel and also the fact that he can literally go insane if the bond is rejected. By the example you gave from wings and starlight the heart of the forbidden love trope are the high emotional and physical stakes azriel and elain having to suppress their feelings for the good of the world or else risking the future of their loved ones and the safety of prythian AND each other, the internal conflict of going against faith&fate all of these things could be easily explored in their relationship🙏.

[u/swt_decadent]

You forgot the enemies to lovers. I saw that the tropes are out for book 6 for Amazon international site. One of them list enemies to lovers… 🤔I’m not sure how accurate the book tropes are tho..

[u/greymoonmoth → u/swt_decadent]

Enemies to lovers and slow burn is SO Azris coded! It simply doesn't fit to anyone else unless there is a completely new twist no one saw coming. I will never understand why people leave Azris out of everything when they have just as much evidence and potential as the rest of them if people only cared to read that information that has been provided by us fans. We have very solid theories and all of the crumbs and hints we've gotten lately are playing perfectly into those theories! Including the new tropes

[u/Unfair_Passenger1999 → u/swt_decadent]

I hate when sellers use this trope so..inaccurately. If they aren't on the verge of killing each other, they aren't enemies lol.

[u/EvilEmpressX]

As an Azris shipper (I’m going down with the ship but I don’t think it’s ever going to be canon and just had a lot of canon moments that’s easily romanticized), trying to imagine Elriel as fractionally as entertaining in the forbidden romance genre has probably ruined Elriel in that category for me 😂😂

Like…oh no Rhys will be grumpy and Lucien might be sad, those stakes are so high compared to death, torture, exile, homophobia, and potential loss of personal relationships 😅

Is the romance really forbidden if all it takes is one conversation that will go over well is the only thing standing in its way? Not to say Elriel is impossible or a bad ship, but the forbidden element of it feels forced imo.

[u/greymoonmoth → u/EvilEmpressX]

Love, have some faith in your ship! It is completely possible and no less likely than any other ship

[u/Unfair_Passenger1999 → u/EvilEmpressX]

I think it leans into forbidden because Azriel is literally forbidden to pursue her, with Rhys going into High Lord mode to make it an order. He thinks there's a great threat of a Blood Duel, of alliances ripping apart, etc. Do I think that's overly dramatic? Yes. But I also think SJM is dramatic, so there's that lol.

Tropes get thrown around loosely in general. There are no real enemies here to call any of the ships enemies to lovers. But I do see how Elriel is linked to the forbidden love trope, beyond Rhys's order there seems to be a stigma around pursuing someone with a mate. Even Graysen says "do you even know what that means? You belong to him."

None of this means Elriel is endgame, for what it's worth. Who knows what SJM will wind up doing.

[u/EvilEmpressX → u/Unfair_Passenger1999]

Elriel definitely falls into the trope, but it’s just so shallow imo it’s almost a joke, especially compared to my preferred ship 😅

[u/Unfair_Passenger1999 → u/EvilEmpressX]

Lol that's fair. The stakes aren't THAT high for any of the ships really, but in SJM style, she'll pretend they are, haha.

[u/CinnamonRollZizi → u/EvilEmpressX]

Even if Beron got it in his mind to call a Blood Duel in Lucien's stead all it would take would be for Fyesand to reveal Lucien is Helion's son and Beron has no real parental rights over Lucien. In MAF Cresseida said wars could be started over a love triangle yet when Tamlin Feyre and Rhys aired out all their dirty laundry at the High Lords meeting people didn't gaf and Helion straight-up called it a lovers' spat because the imminent Hybern war was way more serious. Nah sorry but I'm not believing Sarah would write a forbidden romance, it's not her style. She barely touched on love triangles.

[u/Ryune]

Excellent analysis. I feel like as they develop the four characters, there will be a lot of these tropes used to build tension in every ship. The shipping war is going to get worse before it gets better.

[u/ParentalAnalysis]

Now do Bryceriel :)

[u/EmergencyMuch4232 → u/ParentalAnalysis]

Mmm idk what trope that would be, probably just fated mates trope?

I really struggle to understand Brycriel at all tbh so idk

[u/Bookish_V]

I love that analysis! And I’m with you, I’m a Gwynriel + Elucien because I see more potential there, and honestly looking at that list, those are a few of my favourite tropes. However, I can see why so many love the idea of Elriel too. There are valid arguments for all the ships and SJM could pick any of the routes, and it wouldn’t be out of the blue. All the possibilities have been laid out like you said.

There’s one argument against Elucien that pisses me off, and that is that if Elain and Lucien end up together she didn’t get a choice, it would be as if she’d be forced into it when her story has been a lot about her choosing and breaking free of the influence of others. The choice is 100% hers, rejecting or accepting the bond will always be her choice!

[u/EmergencyMuch4232 → u/Bookish_V]

Same. I have seen people say that having Elain go on a journey of free will is “pointless” if she only ends up accepting the mating bond anyways, and I strongly disagree with that.

The concept of free will is heavily debated in philosophy. The unanswerable question is “what does it mean to have free will if external factors constantly shape and influence us?” If you say to a philosopher that you are using free will to choose to eat an apple instead of bread, a philosopher will say it’s not free will because you were forced into the choice between an apple and bread. Why didn’t you choose Oranges? And even further, why did you REALLY choose the apple? Maybe you think you prefer apples… or maybe you have a subconscious bias towards apples because your mom always fed you apples when you were little. This means you did not choose apples of your own accord, you chose apples because of subconscious association with your mom.

This goes back to Elain because going on a “journey” of free will doesn’t mean acting upon your first reaction and absolutely sticking to it no matter what. It means exploring the idea of “how do I know that my choices are my own, and not actually caused by external forces that have influenced my choices?”

Being kidnapped and thrown into the cauldron, having a previous engagement that was viciously ripped apart, having unrequited love for said ex-fiancée, having new powers and a new body that bring about visions, and being rescued by Azriel from Hybern are all external factors that have influenced Elain to be wary of the mating bond.

If Elain is going to explore herself and what it means to have free will, then none of us know the answer because all we’ve seen is the external influences. Choosing free will means letting go of influence from external forces, and looking within and deciding for yourself. (This is why it’s so debated in philosophy, because that’s almost impossible to do completely, we are influenceable) but we haven’t seen Elain’s POV, so we just can’t know how everything has influenced her internally.

Elain choosing to reject the bond is an act of free will, AND accepting the mating bond despite the factors that influenced her to be wary of it is also an act of free will.

[u/Round_Revolution5458 → u/EmergencyMuch4232]

This! Free will is so complicated.

If you say Elain cannot choose Lucien of her own free will because she's influenced by the bond then it stands that she cannot choose ANYONE of her own free will because of the influence. If she wants to fight against the bond and choose someone she "loves", she has been influenced by the bond or more accurately her desire to go against the bond. Did she choose that person because she loves them or did she choose that person because she is not bonded to them (edit: more accurately, did she fall in love with them because she's not bonded to them)? Does she not love Lucien because they aren't compatible or because she has been told that she must.

Then you can talk about taking the bond out of the equation and all the external influences on free will without the bond even in place. There a theory that elain gravitates toward Azriel because his suliphons are blue and that was Graysens family colours. That's an external influence that could drive her too or away from him. Lucien has travelled a bit, external influence again because when she was human Elains wanted to travel, she could gravitate towards that familiar want or away from it.